I grew up in a log cabin, remodeled over the years. It started out being a one room cabin with a dirt floor and an outhouse. Then came indoor plumbing and additions to include a modern bathroom (modern compared to the outhouse at least). My parents bought this home for $1,000 when they got married. It’s the only home our family ever knew. It was small; but with an addition of three bedrooms, a bath, and a few other updates over the years, our family of seven never felt deprived. We had a “boys” bedroom, with two queen beds and four boys; the slanted ceiling addition was lower than 6 feet. Both beds were broken over the years by rambunctious pillow fights. My only sister and parents had the other two bedrooms.
In the early days, water had to be hauled to the home and we drove to the mountains to a place called Five Springs. There the pure water came out of the granite filters and we filled our drinking water containers. Even though we later got running water, we still drove to the springs to bring home the fresh water whenever possible because it tasted much better to us than the chlorinated stuff that came out of the plumbed water system.
I relate this upbringing to talk about my mentor, Jim Ritchie. I adopted him as a mentor over 35 years ago—he graciously accepted my request. He retired at age 35 and has been teaching Launching Leaders principles since that time from New Zealand to Africa and everywhere in between. He is now in his 70’s and still going strong. He has given back in this way with his wife Carolyn, and is beloved by the thousands who have taken his classes and have been transformed from the empowering principles taught therein.
In 2008 he was the central figure and founding member of Launching Leaders, which has now become a world-wide endeavor. I have been honored to assist my mentor in this journey. If the founding principles are akin to the log cabin I grew up in, they are timeless in their benefit, and much of what we need.
The messages of Launching Leaders have been shaped and honed to address the rising generations in a unique way. The curriculum is now online, packed with relevant videos, all of which engage and empower in a very unique way—-inviting the inclusion of faith (whatever your faith is) with leadership principles. Unique also in that our organization celebrates Millennials and desires to come along-side them in this journey.
Jim is akin in my mind to the log home I grew up in, and the spring we gathered water at. That log home has two foot think walls and still stands firm today—with all of its additions. The additions of principles and materials over the years are only successful because of the foundations that Jim laid over a life time. Like the cabin, they stand the test of time. As Jim travels the world teaching Launching Leaders today, he isn’t using the high tech deliveries available to him, he is letting the students drink directly from the fountain—the well spring of principles that we teach. He is figuratively taking them to the mountain for a drink of the most empowering principles, taught in only the way our original founder 
can.
Jim is as much as a gem as the fresh water coming out of the granite mountain, as firm as the cabin I grew up in—-the best ambassador that Launching Leaders could ever hope to be partnered with—-which only makes sense since he started all of this.
Be empowered by the Launching Leaders curriculum, but if you do ever get an opportunity to come to the mountain and drink straight from the spring (Jim Ritchie), don’t miss that opportunity.
I am proud to be a part of this journey with my mentor. Adjacent and below are recent photos that show him teaching hundreds who gather to drink from the fountain of our beginnings. Here’s to the well-spring of principles that he continues to teach and the solid foundations on which they are built.
Thanks my friend.
